Monday, May 28, 2012

Yoyogi Park's Event Plaza (across from the main Yoyogi Park) is the venue for an array of festivals, many of which have been covered by the JapanVistor Blog in the past.

This weekend - of bright balmy spring weather - it was the turn for the Laos Festival. Thousands flocked the Yoyogi Park Event Plaza to check out the music performances in the sound shell, join the queues at the numerous Laotian or Thai food stalls, try samples of Laotian rum, buy tropical fruit and vegetables from Laos, drink Laotian beer, look at and perhaps buy the Laotian clothing and handicrafts on display, pick up Laos-related travel and cultural information, and rifle through the clothing and knick-knicks at the flea market that formed part of the festival.

Food stalls, Laos Festival, Tokyo 2012

The people-watching was, as is always the case at Yoyogi Park, as much fun as the event spectacles themselves, not to mention the dog-watching.

Faces got redder and redder and the laughter more boisterous - or the snores of the catnapping louder - as the afternoon progressed, and those queues at the food stalls stayed as long as ever whatever the hour.